Living Abroad
Is it really Expats versus Locals?
Many travel guides and blogs talk about getting to know the locals when you travel. As a expat though, it makes me rethink where is the line between an expat and a local. I like to feel what it would be like to live in a place. I like that the guy at the little breakfast bar notices when we don’t come around or that a waitress knows our order after only a few days. This is that sense of “home away from home” that I enjoy. Connections with locals can make you feel like you belong even when you obviously don’t.
Atlanta Highway Roadtrip
One of the things I think most Europeans who have never been have a hard time to grasp are the distances involved in getting places in the US. Highways are everywhere and you need a car to get just about anywhere. An hour commute to work is standard and due to traffic this could mean 40 miles or only 10. Just going to the nearest grocery store is often a mile or two. Going back this summer I was able to see the driving experience with new eyes.
A Boy and His Bike
Recently my bike broke. For most Americans imagine what it might feel like to lose a car. My main mode of transport in the summer months reduced to the phrase “more expensive to fix than to buy a new one.” I am not totally stranded though. Thankfully there is wonderful public transport in Freiburg, but it is still sad. I bought the bike during the first summer that I was here, which makes it 3 and a half years old. It is getting darker and colder, so I wouldn’t be riding as much anyway, but it is awful to lose it.
Expat Isolation and Loneliness
You are different than everyone around you. Perhaps you don’t speak their language so well (or at all). Maybe you miss your friends at home that know all of the inside jokes. You are out of your comfort zone so far you can’t even see it anymore. And this isn’t travel, so you could be living alone and likely working all day. The expatriate experience is a wonderful one. Though it can be a isolating and lonely one at times.
London Expat Experience
Lots of beer, lots of parties, trying to make heads or tails of the tube map and planning the next European trip. That’s the London Expat Experience.
The Siren Song of Home Leave
I will also be heading home in June after over three years as an expat for a “home leave”, so this topic is close to my heart too. In this guest post, Suzer expands upon one of her posts about going home again. The mix of identities that an expat has to deal with “going back.” Check out her blog for more expat tales from Australia.- Andrew
Taking Advantage of the Crossroads
The expat life is sometimes quite unstable. For those abroad on a job post, this job can evaporate and leave you in an uncertain position. Ariana from And Here We Are writes a guest post about how to harness this instability and use it at these times to change your life for the better.
Traveling vs. Living as an Expat
Guest Post by Italylogue: Jessica Spiegel.
“My plan is to move to Italy,” I tell my new Italian friend over coffee in Milan. He looks back at me blankly and for a moment I wonder if I’ve used the wrong verb tense or accidentally said something about his mother. It’s not until he replies that the blank look becomes clear and I get a strong sense of déjà vu.
“But – why would you want to do that?” he asks. And I sigh. Again.
